Manchester will get a congestion charge requiring drivers to pay on entering or leaving the city under plans approved by the government today.

The charge, which will be the first in a large British city outside London, is opposed by some local Labour MPs, who are concerned it will undermine their support in the next general election.

The transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, gave the scheme the green light in a statement to parliament this afternoon.

The plans involve two charging rings, one at the M60, the other close to the city centre, and millions of pounds of government support for improvements to public transport, including buses and trams.

The scheme is aimed at cutting pollution and traffic density.

Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for Manchester Blackley, predicted a backlash at the polls from disgruntled motorists in marginal seats on the fringes of Greater Manchester.

He told the BBC1 Politics Show: "To have a Labour government, you have to have an alliance not only of core Labour voters but of people who before 1997 in constituencies like Bury North and Bolton West didn't vote Labour.

"The congestion tax is another pressure on that coalition. It is another wedge that will break that coalition up and make it much more difficult to deliver a Labour government."

The Conservative leader of Trafford council, Susan Williams, who is hoping to unseat Ruth Kelly from the marginal Bolton West seat in the upcoming general election, told the same programme that the scheme was "political suicide" for Labour.

"To bring in the congestion charge at a time when the roads of Greater Manchester and the country have been blockaded by truck drivers and motorcyclists protesting about taxes on the motorist seems to be an act of political suicide," she said.

Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council, said: "My belief is that if the politicians of Greater Manchester have the strength and confidence to do what is very clearly in the long-term interests of this conurbation and all its people, we won't be punished at the ballot box, we will be rewarded for that strength of purpose."